Joint for sheet piles



.Ifine 12, 1951 A. scHAAcK 55 JOINTS FOR SHEET PILES Filed July 30', 1947 A INVENTOR.

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Patented June 12, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE JOINT FOR SHEET PILES Dudelange Luxemburg Societe Application July 30, 1947, Serial No. 764,749 In Luxemburg November 29, 1943 Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946 Patent expires November 29, 1963 '7 Claims.

This invention relates to sheet piles, such as are used for the construction of cellular or gabioned caissons, dams or the like, and more particularly the invention is concerned with the joints of sheet piles in which connection between successive or adjacent sheet piles is effected by the inter-engagement of joint portions of bifurcated cross-section, the iurcations of each joint portion comprising a free end of edge hook and an inwardly spaced claw, the space between the hook and claw afiording a channel to receive a hook on the adjacent sheet pile, the claw and hook on the latter pile receiving between them the hook of the other pile. This form of joint is referred to as a double hook joint.

For the coupling together of sheet piles these double hook joints have proved very efficient, but the present invention is concerned with a modification of such joints which enhances their re sponse or yield to the negotiation of bends whilst maintaining the permanency of predetermined hook form and enabling high tensile strains or tractive efforts to be applied to the inter-engaged or coupled-up sheet piles.

The aforesaid known form of double hook joint, does not afford adequate bending, or deviation from co-planar relationship of successive sheet piles at the joints for negotiating bends on most forms of cylindrical and arcuate surfaces, and normally the only yield available depends upon the play of the claws and the tolerance of the rolling action. That is to say, a real hinge effect is not obtained. However, a hinge effect is desirable with many forms of work involving the use of sheet piles hooked together, and the primary object of this invention is to achieve such desideratum in a highly efficient manner. Another object of the invention is to increase the strength of the hook, without introducing added bulkiness or increasing the overall dimensions of the joint.

According to this invention a sheet pile with means for forming with a co-operating sheet pile a double hook joint is characterised in that the part of the joint forming means adapted to abut in opposition against a like part of the co-operating sheet is adapted to make point contact with said like part to provide at the point of contact an axis of articulation for the joint, the opening in the joint forming part which receives the hook of the other sheet pile being shaped to guide the said hook of such other sheet pile for pivotal movement.

In a completed joint of this invention the opposed abutting parts of a double hook joint which receive the direct tractive effort or tensile strain when the sheet piles are hooked together make point contact with each other to provide an axis of articulation for the inter-engaged hook elements of the coupled sheet piles, and the inner edges of the claws join at their inner ends concave edges radiused from the axis of articulation, the hooks abutting against such concave edges.

The said point or rolling contact is obtained by shaping the opposed or abutting edges of the hooks with centre crests of wide angle or arcuate form.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into efiiect drawings are appended hereto illustrating three embodiments thereof respectively in Figures 1, 2 and 3.

Referring to the drawings the two sheet piles c and d have in common triangular cross-section hooks e the peaks or ridges of which form the appropriate free ends or edges of the sheet piles. Spaced inwardly from each hook e is a claw g inclined so as to lie closely along the inclined side e of the appropriate hook c, this side e being that which is most remote from the claw g of the sheet carrying such hook.

In the known form of joint the base portion of each hook is normal or perpendicular with respect to the plane of the sheet pile, so that during tractive effort the flat base portions of the hooks abut against each. other in a plane transverse to the mean direction of tensile strain. However the use of such straight edge abutting base portions only affords deviation or bending of the joint when there happens to be a tolerance or play between the inter-engaging joint parts, and for any such tolerance or play to be adequate to provide for such bending, results in inefilcient joints. 7

To enable successive sheets to be hinged or folded relatively to each other to afford a ready negotiation of a cylindrical or arcuate wall, the arrangement shown in Figure 1 is adopted, in which the base portion e of each hook is awide angle form. The angle BOA or B 0A of each side has its apex O positioned at the centre or axis of articulation of the joint, the angle 00 formed when the opposed base portions e are truly symmetrical (i. e. when the two sheet piles c and d are truly co-planar) being the maximum angle of deviation or hinge movement of the connected sheet piles.

With the joint in the latter mentioned symmetrical position the apices S, S of the two substantially triangular hooks e are midway be tween, and in contact with, concave sides C D and CD respectively, these sides of the joint forming parts of the sheet piles being radiused from the centre so that said apices traverse the said radiused sides when the two sheet piles move angularly relatively to each other, and the sides ASF or A S F contact or nearly contact with the sides D E C B and BC, DE at maximum relative angularity of the connected sheet piles.

These sides DE and D E are tangential with respect to the radiused corners F and F so that a sliding point contact or nearly rolling action takes place between the hooks e and claws 9 when one sheet pile folds relatively to the other. It will be seen that the deviation of one sheet pile relatively to the other is bi-lateral.

Increased efficiency can be obtained by radiusing the opposed abutting sides 6 to convex form as shown in Figure 2 by displacing the apices S and S to symmetrical diagonally opposed relationship (relative to the co-planar centre line of the two sheet piles) it is possible to obtain sturdier hooks and claws, and as shown in Figure 3 it is possible to increase the hooking action by changing the direction of inclination of the angle 0, because the radiusecl corners h and It will tend to hook each other.

The construction of hook joint as aforesaid enables the limb parts 70 of the hooks to be made wider than the equivalent parts in the previously proposed hook joint, whereby it is possible by means of the present invention to reinforce such parts. That is to say in the present invention the parts is progressively increase in width towards and merge into the end parts e of the hooks.

I claim:

1. A sheet pile comprising a web with an integral and joint part of bifurcated form, one furcation being longer than the other and shaped as a hook disposed predominately on one side of the plane of the web, the other limb comprising a claw disposed on the other side of the plane of the web and forming with the hooking part of the hook shaped limb a mouth to receive the corresponding book of a co-acting pile, said mouth having fore-and-aft wall parts both intersecting the plane of the web, the fore part being crested to form a rocking abutment under tensile stress in opposition to and against a like part of the co-acting pile, the said aft wall part of the mouth being shaped in prolongation of the inner side of the claw to a curvature which conforms substantially with the line generated by the movement of the contiguous extremity of the hook of the co-acting pile.

2. A sheet pile comprising a web portion, integral hook portions at its end shaped complementarily so that when one end hook portion of one sheet pile is inter-engaged with the complementary hook portion end of co-acting pile a double-hook joint is formed to enable the inter-connected piles to negotiate a bend, each hook portion being disposed predominately unilaterally of the plane of the web but having a nose end and an inturned lateral part adapted to receive the nose end of the hook of the ooacting pile, said inturned part having a crested surface intersecting the plane of the web and adapted to abut against a like situated surface of the hook of the co-acting pile under tensile stress and also having opposed to said crested surface a concave surface adapted to form an abutment for the nose of the hook portion of the co-acting sheet pile, a claw projecting angularly outwardly away from the junction part of the hook to the web and joinging at its inner edge the said concave surface, the crested surface being adapted to make line contact with and rock against the corresponding part of the heck of the co-acting sheet pile, and the concave surface conforming substantially with the line generated by the movement of the nose of the co-acting pile when two interconnected piles are angularly adjusted one relative to the other.

3. A sheet pile comprising a web with hook ends shaped complementarily so that one hook end of one sheet pile can mate with a hook end of a co-acting sheet pile to form a double hook joint, an abutment surface in each hook crossing the plane of the web and adapted to receive the tensile stress when co-acting sheet piles are united by inter-engaging the complementary hook ends thereof, said abutment surfaces being shaped to provide for each double hook joint a line of rocking contact located substantially along the line of intersection of the two planes of the sheet piles when angularly related, concave surfaces in the hook ends directly opposed to said abutment surfaces and shaped to conform with the line generated by the contiguous outer ends of the hooks of co-acting piles to permit of a free articulation of the hooks, the hooks having outer surfaces converging into the said outer ends, and inner edges diverging from said arcuate edges to form abutments for said converging edges to limit the angle of rock or articulation of one sheet pile relative to the other sheet pile.

4. A hook joint connecting together two sheet piles to afford adjustment of the angular relationship of the two sheet piles, comprising a hook end on one sheet and a hook end on the other sheet, the two hook ends inter-engaging with opposed inner edges abutting against each other to receive the direct tractive effort or tensile stress on the sheet piles, a crest formed on one of said opposed inner edges affording points of rocking contact of the inter-engaged hook ends, concave arcuate edges formed on the parts of the inner edges of the said hook ends opposed to, and remote from, said opposed abutting edges and located close to and shaped to conform substantially with the line generated by the outer ends of the hook ends when one sheet pile is adjusted angularly relative to the other, outer edge parts on said hook ends converging into said outer ends so that the outer ends are shaped as peaks, and inner edge abutment forming parts with the hook ends diverging from said arcuate edges to act as stops for said converging edges to limit the angle of relative adjustment of the two sheet piles.

5. A double hook joint according to claim 4 wherein the outer ends or peaks of the hooks are the apices of substantially triangular shaped hook parts and are disposed in a plane parallel with the planes of the sheet piles when the sheet piles are co-planar.

6. A double hook joint according to claim 4 wherein the outer ends or peaks of the hooks are the apices of substantially triangular shaped hook parts and are in a plane diagonal with respect to the co-planar sheet piles.

7. A double hook joint according to claim 6 wherein the opposed parts of the hooks which Number abut under tensile stress are undercut so that 5 2 332 812 their outer ends or free corners tend to hook into each other.

A. SCI-IAACK.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

Number 6 UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Neilson Feb. 9, 1909 Neilson Aug. 19, 1913 Rieger Oct. 26, 1943 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date France 1931 

